Michael Phelps Unlikely To Outperform Beijing

At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the world was stunned by two athletes. Michael Phelps dominated the pool and Usain Bolt sped through on the track. Each of them earned well-deserved gold medals and broke several world records. This has made them the ones to look out for this year at the 2012 London Olympics. However, many do not believe that history will repeat itself. In fact, majority feel that they will not be able to outperform their previous Olympics.

Both Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt have something in common this year. Both of their strongest rivals are their teammates. For Michael Phelps, the American swimmer, he will have to keep a close eye on Ryan Lochte, who has been shining in the heats so far. As for Usain Bolt, the Jamaican sprinter, Yohan Blake could pose a problem for him. “I actually think it’s a very similar parallel between Phelps and Bolt because I feel like the competition is closer. It’s not a question of whether they’re not going to do well at the Olympic Games. They are. It’s a question of whether the pack has gotten a lot closer to both of them,” stated Ato Boldon, a Trinidad and Tobago sprinter who accumulated four medals from over two Summer Games.

For Ryan Lochte, he feels that it is his turn to shine in this year’s Olympics. Although he may have beaten Phelps at last year’s world championships twice, Phelps has still managed to stay in the lead three out of four events at the U.S. trials last month. “We both hate to lose to one another. Every time I do get in the water, no matter what stroke it is, he does bring everything out of me and I think that’s something that I haven’t had with too many competitors throughout my career,” said the winner of eight gold medals in Beijing.

As we all already know, winning eight gold medals again this year for Phelps is totally out of the question. After dropping the 200-meter freestyle, he is only left with seven events. Two out of these seven events will be against Lochte, the 200 and 400 individual medleys. “I have used it as motivation throughout the year and I’ll continue to use it as motivation for the next couple weeks. We’re obviously going to be training with each other and next to each other,” mentioned Phelps on Lochte’s desire to out-swim him. For the full article, read it here.

This year’s Olympics promises to be a battle of the rivals. Who will come up on top? We’ll find out in just 2 weeks! Happy Fish Swim School offers swimming lessons in Singapore. Please refer to our Competitive Swimming Training if you want to be the next Singapore swimming sensation!